I was intrigued to learn the story behind the small cannons in Lownsdale Square:

The howitzers of Lownsdale Square came to the city by the hand of Henry E. Dosch, a German immigrant who served in the Army of the Missouri before moving to Oregon. Southwest Dosch Road is named for him.

At
Christmas 1901, Dosch was tending the Oregon exhibits at the Charleston
Exhibition -- a world's fair -- when he jumped at the chance to visit
the city's harbor and tour Fort Sumter, still in ruins from the
bombardment of 40 years before.

While walking the beach around
the fort on a low tide, Dosch found the two howitzers, about 10 feet
long, deep in the sand. His tour guide said they had been fired in
defense of the fort.

Later, Dosch wrote that the guns would make
a fine addition to a planned soldiers' memorial in Portland, so he
asked the War Department in Washington for permission to remove the
guns.

Anne Saker/The OregonianWith
a misspelling common at the time, a plaque briefly tells the history of
the two cannon at the foot of the Soldiers' Monument in Lownsdale
Square.

When
the federal government sent the OK, "in less than 12 hours, we had the
howitzers dug out of the sand the shells recovered from the rocks... and
all were transported to our exhibits at the exhibition where I loaded
them in our cars bound for this city."

Anyway, Anne has forced my hand, because I was saving a post on the Grand Army of the Republic cemetery for Memorial Day. But she mentions this little Southwest Portland treasure, so it's worth dwelling on it now.